


It's Gonna Be a Long Night

by penisparker



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 13:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3411890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penisparker/pseuds/penisparker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All they needed was a push.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Gonna Be a Long Night

Laurel touches him, sometimes. It’s different from the way he sees her touch Frank, or even her boyfriend when he used to come around – those were intentional, they all had a purpose, a reason. When Laurel touches him, it’s thoughtless, like she didn’t mean to hug him after a court case, or to fall asleep on his shoulder after hours and hours of endless studying, or reaching out to hold his wrist if things get particularly rough that day. He doesn’t mind it, he thinks its fine, thinks it’s normal since sometimes she’ll give Connor or Michaela a pat on the arm. _Sometimes_. When the mood’s right.

He doesn’t mind until he’s sitting across from Connor and Michaela in the study, with Laurel in the kitchen making tea for herself (and for him.) Connor and Michaela keep on looking at him, as if they believe they’re doing it _furtively_ , and it’s just getting on Wes’s nerves so he just slams his laptop closed and looks at them. He catches Connor sneaking another look up at him, and raises his eyebrows. “Is there something you’d like to discuss, Connor? Michaela?”

And Connor and Michaela have never been ones to shy away from pressure, and Wes both loves and hates them for it. Michaela, always one step ahead of Connor whenever she can be, goes first: “Are you and Laurel dating?”

Wes’s eyes widen. He doesn’t think of Laurel like that, he doesn’t think of _any_ of them like that, ever. “What? No. Why would you even –“

Laurel’s always had the best timing. “Why would _who_ even do what? Did you guys find anything out?” She sits down as close as possible right next to him, her smile warm at Wes as she settles two mugs of tea on the stack of books in front of them. Connor and Michaela both smirk triumphantly, as if they’ve already solved something – but they’ve both always been too quick to assume, they never actually figure anything out. (If he expressed this to Laurel, she’d probably agree.)

“Michaela and I think that you and Wes are dating,” says Connor, grinning with pride as he looks back down at his laptop. Michaela’s still looking at the both of them, but her eyes linger on Wes, as if she doesn’t _believe_ what he told her. Smart of her, of course, considering he lies all the time.

He tries to lie to Laurel, but it never works. Laurel snorts as she picks up her cup, her hand shaking – Wes grabs the cup from her and blows at it himself. He looks at her over the brim of the cup, ignoring the light blush gracing her cheeks. She rolls her eyes, grabs a book from the stack. “I’m not dating anyone. Wes is my coworker, occasionally my friend.” He huffs out a laugh when she says “occasionally,” and receives a light smack on the chest for it.

“Alright – whatever you two say. Just don’t let it get in the way of work.” Michaela says, and her eyes soften, just a little, as she looks at them. Wes wonders if she’s thinking about her fiancée, her soon to be husband that she loved wholeheartedly before everything happened. He worries about her sometimes, but he knew if he ever asked, she’d kill him for it. Laurel takes her cup from Wes’s hands and sips at her tea, saying nothing in response.

Wes gives Michaela a half-assed salute and goes back to work. No one else gets that they’re just _friends_ – as great as Laurel is, as funny and beautiful and intelligent, he’s just not interested. As if she knows what he’s thinking and is actively conspiring against him, Laurel picks up his cup of tea and starts blowing on it for him, and he can’t help but grin – they started blowing off each other’s cups of coffee and tea after one too many burnt tongues.

Connor lifts his head up from looking at the laptop, eyes bleary. “How come you never make us tea?”

Laurel sighs and hands Wes his cup. “Because you’re both mature enough to make your own cups of tea.”

Michaela and Connor, however brilliant and hardworking they may be, still manage to act like toddlers whenever they feel like. Michaela shuts her laptop and crosses her arms. “Okay, but so is Wes.”

“Wes is my friend, he’s different.” Laurel grabs a highlighter from their pile of supplies on the coffee table, and highlights a few lines in the book. She only keeps busy when she’s avoiding something: he knows this from long nights in his apartment, her anxiety a tangible thing whenever he asks the wrong question.

“You said he was _occasionally_ your friend. So like, he shouldn’t get cups all the time.”

Laurel actually laughs, and it’s a bright, incredible sound. “Are you kidding? What is this, Mean Girls?” She leans in toward Michaela conspiratorially. “Or is this your way of trying to hook us up?” Wes calmly puts down his cup of tea before he spills it. It’s a matter of time before it escalates.

“Why would I do that?”

Laurel shrugs, looks back down at her book again. Michaela rolls her eyes and snatches the book from Laurel’s hands.

“If I wanted you two to hook up, you would be together already.”

“Of _course_ we would be, because your superior intelligence is great enough to control actual people with _actual_ feelings.” Laurel raises her brows, like she’s ready for a challenge, and Wes and Connor both refuse to look up from their work. Michaela smirks.

“Fine, then. I was hoping you two would get together on your own terms, but if you want to force my hand…”

“I’m not _forcing_ anything, and there is nothing to _be_ forced. Let’s just get back to work, please.” Laurel straightens, grabs her book back, and begins reading again.

 

 

It’s a couple hours later, well into the morning, when Michaela “accidentally” shoves Laurel into Wes’s side as they’re leaving, and Wes almost chokes on a laugh that bubbles out of him. With the murder behind him, the laughs come easier now. The nightmares don’t, but they never did. He wraps an arm around Laurel’s shoulders, his smile wide as he looks down at her. She’s rolling her eyes, mouth twisted in annoyance. “It’s only gonna get worse, you know that.”

Laurel shifts from under his arm, but doesn’t move away. “She’s so… _annoying_ sometimes. Like, I have more important things to worry about than who likes who or are they going to date or not, y’know? This case, for example, is way more important than some stupid –” she cuts herself off, takes a deep breath. He stiffens.

“Some stupid _what_?” He knows what she wanted to say, he just wants to hear her say it. He _really_ wants to hear her say it, and it’s alarming, because they were only ‘Occasional Friends’ a few hours ago. Laurel moves from under his arm.

“You know. Come on Wes, you _know_ , I blow your cups of tea, we sleep at each other’s places, I hold your hand when I get nervous in court and I wouldn’t do that with anybody!” She breathes again, her eyes closing as if she’s in pain. Wes reaches out for her cheeks, bends down because he’s tall. He’s always been too god damn tall.

“Hey, hey listen, I know, I do, I just thought that wouldn’t want to because. We work together, y’know?”

Laurel opens her eyes and looks at him. For a minute, they just stare at each other. “Yeah, I know. So…”

“So, are we still Occasional Friends?” He grins at her, and she grins back.

“I guess we can be Temporary Dating Partners.” She says, still grinning as she kisses him.  

**Author's Note:**

> sry for the cheesy trash


End file.
